Rosemary Westwood
Rosemary Westwood is the public and reproductive health reporter for WWNO/WRKF. She was previously a freelance writer specializing in gender and reproductive rights, a radio producer, columnist, magazine writer and podcast host.
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After Gov. John Bel Edwards announced Tuesday that masks would not be required in most places statewide except in certain schools, some public health experts said not only should masks remain mandatory in all schools, but it’s too soon for the rest of the state to take them off.
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Public health officials are urging many fully vaccinated people in Louisiana to get a booster shot in the wake of new recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Thursday.
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New Orleans City Council is expected to adopt a range of new requirements for seniors’ living facilities on Thursday, after hundreds of vulnerable residents were left without power and five died in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida.
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The deaths of pregnant people in Louisiana mark a dramatic spike in severe outcomes for a particularly vulnerable group of people in Louisiana, but they’re also part of a national trend driven by the delta surge and low vaccination rates.
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More than a dozen hospitals in Louisiana have earned a new designation for high-quality pregnancy care, as part of a push by the state health department to decrease Louisiana’s high maternal mortality rate and disparities in care that put Black women’s health most at risk.
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Our Lady of the Lake Regional Center plans to break ground on a $100 million stand-alone, multi-disciplinary cancer facility next year, according to state and health officials at a Monday press conference.
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Another child has been reported dead from COVID-19 in Louisiana on Monday, the second confirmed fatality in just a handful of days, even as the highly transmissible fourth surge begins to slow.
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Louisiana is giving $100 to people who get their first shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, state officials announced Friday, as the state’s vaccination rate continues to lag behind the rest of the nation.
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It’s now clear that the unprecedented fourth surge of the pandemic has peaked. But experts worry that the virus is still raging in Louisiana.
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The mandate will be extended for 28 days. Case numbers and hospitalizations are dropping, but hospitals in the state are still handling four times the COVID-19 patients compared to late June, before the fourth wave began.